“Then get it for them,” he told her.
“It would require home visits, foster parent classes –” she began.
“The state he’s in, Karena, he’s not gonna be discharged tomorrow,” Chace pointed out. “You have time and what you already know about that kid and the more you’ll find out, I know you, you’ll bust your hump to fast-track it.”
He was not wrong about this. There were people who found jobs. Karena Papadakis found her calling. Her caseload wasn’t exactly light but it also wasn’t what a person in a similar position in a city would be. This gave her plenty of time to do her job the way she’d probably break her back to do it even if her caseload was double. And that was, with care.
She held his eyes and then cautiously reminded him, “Medical reports say this kid may be special needs. The history you gave me tells me he already is.”
“You know I won’t let that kid down. You don’t know this but you can take my word my woman won’t let him down. They’re her parents. She’s got nephews close to his age. Her sister lives in Gnaw Bone. You place this kid with the Goodknights, he goes from livin’ in his own shit in a shed in the middle of nowhere to livin’ in a modified Brady Bunch house ten minutes out of town with a good, close family who, I assure you, can handle special needs. These people got so much goodness, Karena, they can handle anything.”
“Chace,” she said softly, “I’ve heard what you and Faye Goodknight have been doing for this boy but –”
She stopped speaking, her body jerked and her eyes went over his shoulder so Chace twisted his torso to see Silas bustling up.
“Heya,” he dipped his chin to Karena on a grin when he stopped at their side and muttered a further. “Sorry to interrupt.”
Then he turned to Chace and jerked up a box Chace didn’t get a good look at before he kept speaking.
“Lookee here, Chace,” he shook the box. “After church, me and Sondra went real quick to the mall. My Faye says Malachi likes to read lots and since his hands are messed up, got him one of those fancy shmancy eReaders.” He shook the box again. “Guy at the electronics store, he said all he’s gotta do is press a button on the side to turn the page. They even had little stands he can set it in to hold it up so he doesn’t have to hold it himself. So we got him one of those too. ‘Til he gets his hands back, he can keep right on readin’ cause I figure he can press a button.” He lowered the box, dropped his head and studied it murmuring, “Gotta turn it on at the bottom with a slide doohickey but I figure Sondra, Faye, she’s around, or me could set him up to get him goin’.”
Sondra caught up, didn’t seem to notice Karena at all and lifted a bag toward Chace. Chace also didn’t get a chance to look at it before she dropped it and started talking.
“PJs,” she announced. “Warm ones. You think they’d let him put them on?” she asked then didn’t wait for an answer and turned to Karena who she hadn’t yet met and informed her, “Those hospital blankets are thin. He needs warm jammies.” Then her head jerked this way and that, caught on something and she moved quickly away, muttering, “There’s the nurse. I’ll ask her.”
“I need a plug,” Silas said at this point. “Gotta charge this puppy up.”
Then he took off.
Chace watched as Silas moved away, his head down, his eyes obviously scanning for an outlet. Then Chace saw Sondra standing with an African American woman who was not a nurse, but Malachi’s doctor. She was wearing scrubs, her long, glossy black hair pulled back in a thick ponytail and both of them were looking at a pair of navy blue, flannel, little boys pajama bottoms with airplanes printed on them, smiling.
Chace looked back at Karena.
“I’ll fast-track it,” she mumbled, her lips twitching and she moved away, hand in her purse to pull out her phone.
It was Sunday and Karena Papadakis, a woman he’d worked with more than once, had taken his call and left her family to meet with him at the hospital.
Now she was making more calls to colleagues who also probably didn’t work on Sunday.
Chace grinned at her back as she walked away.
Then he moved toward Silas to help him find a plug.
*
“I’m sorry, Detective Keaton, this is awkward but I’ve asked you here because unfortunately we have to have this conversation,” the hospital administrator started. “Now that that boy is past urgent care, as he doesn’t have insurance, we need to discuss –”
“Don’t worry about the hospital bills,” Chace interrupted her. “I’ll be responsible for them. If there’s a specialist that can confer with Dr. Hughes who can assist in saving his hands and foot, please advise her that she has the go ahead to seek assistance with his case.”